Humanity
by SenorTroll
Summary: Minato never expected Madara to stick around after their battle. What's Madara supposed to do with a helpless baby, Naruto Uzumaki, at his whim?
1. Chapter 1

Madara gazed at the corpses of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki. He loathed that man; he had the nerve to put a halt on his revenge! Who the hell did he think he was! He almost hated him as much as he hated Hashirama, almost. No matter as in his mind, Madara was the true victor of this battle.

Madara gently grabbed the baby from the ground with his only working arm, as his right arm had been crushed by Minato's rasengan, _"What did they call him just now? Ahh yes, Naruto. Now what shall we do with you?"_

Footsteps ruffled through the grass alerting Madara of Konoha-nin.

Madara's lone eye scrutinized Naruto for a split second, _"No, no chances shall be taken today. You will come with me. If I take Yondaime and his wife's corpses along to, they might just believe you died and I stole the corpses."_

Madara rapidly hauled them all together and sucked them within his vortex. They were teleported to a seemingly infinite dimension. Bare of any decorative detail, box shaped spikes protruding from the endless floor.

Madara sat, trying to rest the wounds from his previous battle. He had to decide on a course of action to take regarding the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki. Kill him? No, that would be foolhardy. He didn't have the time to raise the brat either. Heh, but he was sure his minion would.

First thing was first, he had to locate Zetsu and have his body repaired.

_Konohagakure No Sato_

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked upon the destruction wrought upon the Kyuubi's attack and sighed. He was too old for this shit.

He felt a tug on his combat armor and looked to see a small child, couldn't possibly be older than 5. "Sandaime! My parents were killed! Please bring them back, you're powerful!"

Hiruzen knelt down and hugged the child. A scoff interrupted him before he could say anything.

"Hiruzen please, you don't have a chance to console all these orphaned brats, especially not now with the village devastated."

Hiruzen glared at Danzo Shimura, they were childhood friends, but it was a pity to see what Danzo had degraded to with age. Hiruzen patted the young child affectionately and told her to head towards the hospital and proceeded to follow Danzo.

Hiruzen entered the conference room within the Hokage tower, everyone had gathered there. His Advisors, the clan heads, and anyone of note.

Hiruzen started the conversation in a solemn tone, "As you all may know, today Konoha has suffered its most horrifying attack since it was conceived by the great First Hokage, Hashirama. Not only did we suffer losses of countless shinobi, but Minato and his wife were killed. We can't be weak at a time like this; this is when our will of fire should shine the brightest!"

Most of the people gasped in shock at hearing of the murder of Minato Namikaze.

"So what course of action will we take now? We can't remain without Hokage for very long, the other villages we'll see this as our moment of weakness, and we can't give them more excuses to attack. They already wish to end the age of Konoha's supremacy." Shikaku piqued in.

The other clan heads murmured in agreement.

Danzo saw this as his opportunity, "I propose to be the new Hokage! Now in this harsh time we don't need will of fire, it'll only make us softer in our opponent's eyes. We need someone who can get this village back on its feet."

"Bullshit." Shikaku glared at him. "Under the will of fire we became the strongest nation and under the will of fire we shall remain the strongest. I vote that Hiruzen should retake the mantle of Hokage." The various other clan heads agreed.

"I'm sorry Danzo, but it appears Hiruzen shall retake the title." Hotaru said after she saw that Hiruzen had won unanimously.

"Bah! You're all morons!" Danzo spat and stormed out of the room. Hiruzen couldn't help but feel bad for his old friend.

Danzo returned to his quarters and sat entranced in his thoughts. _"This was no freak accident, this attack was planned. By who though? Either way the Kyuubi wasn't killed tonight, it was sealed. Whoever attacked has the host now. I must locate him, if he learns to harness his Jinchuuriki power it'll be over for Konoha."_

Danzo had a new target and it would be his at all means necessary.

_Amegakure_

"Pain."

A man with ghastly, pale skin and rods perceiving what appeared to be a large majority of his body appeared before Madara Uchiha.

"What do you want?" Pain replied monotonously while apprehending the baby's appearance. This was a jinchuuriki, he could feel it.

"You are to raise the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki. You may train him how to use his power, but make sure he won't be a nuisance to kill when the time comes." Madara handed the baby over to Pain.

"How has Akatsuki been going?"

"Very well, according to expectations." Pain responded as he was handed the crying baby.

Madara chuckled, if there was ever a thing as to monotone that would be Pain right here. "I've got a present for you as well. Madara warped the two deceased bodies from his dimension. Minato and Kushina lay on the floor. "Do with them as you will, his name is Naruto. Now I must get going." Madara warped away.

Pain tried to calm the crying baby, but to no avail. Konan walked up to Pain, she had been in the sidelines and heard the entire conversation. She offered her arms, Pain happily obliged.

This was what Konan had always wanted. A baby with Yahiko, at least this is as close as that reality was ever going to get. She rocked Naruto to sleep and nuzzled him to her chest. She had to admit she was surprised at how well she could do this.

"I'm sorry Konan, I'm not very proficient at this." Pain stated.

"It's no problem, Nagato. This actually makes me feel…happy, I suppose."

Pain lightly placed his arm on her shoulder, "I'm truly sorry Konan, you're the only one I actually care about."

Konan's lips twitched into a slight smile, "Well let's go find Naruto a room to sleep."

A/N: First Fic ever, just something I thought I'd do for fun. Not much to say, might've made an error in the timeline though.


	2. Chapter 2

They glared intensely into each others eyes, neither of them budging an inch. The young blonde boy was in urgent need of air, he would die if his enemy didn't lighten up.

Finally, Naruto lost his balance and fell in the water. He quickly rose up for a gasp of air and stared at his enemy. Damnit! That toad's cheeks were still puffed, he wanted to be a beat the damn toad at his own game and have his cheeks puffed up the longest. Six-year old Naruto scrambled out of the water and pouted.

"Naruto, what are you doing now?"

Naruto peeked behind him and saw Konan staring at him with mild curiosity. Naruto's face beamed into a smile, "Auntie Konan! I got bored of being inside so much."

"Why can't I just go play with those other kids?" Naruto frowned.

Konan looked at Naruto with slight regret, "You have to understand your status as Jinchuuriki, Naruto."

"So it's not like I'm that fox, I'm a person!" Naruto argued.

"C'mon Naruto, Pain wants to see you."

Naruto humphed and followed Konan.

Pain was an incredible secretive man, even Naruto rarely got to see him. It was as if the guy hibernated in a chamber most of the day. Naruto entered Pain's conference room and found the man sitting on a futon awaiting his arrival. Naruto sat down on the futon to the right and sat in awkward silence.

"Naruto, I believe you're finally old enough to start your training as a ninja."

Naruto's face beamed into a smile, "Seriously, those guys are so awesome!"

Konan smiled at Naruto's exuberant personality.

"Let me quickly begin with a basic explanation of chakra, the energy all ninjas use to accomplish all their superhuman feats. Chakra is a mixture of your physical and mental energies, you must mold them together through your chakra network to form chakra."

Naruto's head cocked in puzzlement at the explanation Pain had given.

"Don't worry, you're only 6 years old. I know it makes little sense right now, but a little physical training should help you get it." Pain rose and motioned for Naruto to follow him, "We're going to go train you."

_Private Training Room within Pain's tower_

Pain and Konan were overseeing as Naruto was warming up with some physical exercises.

"Pain, are you sure we should be doing this? After all, the extraction process will most likely kill him and once he hears about that he won't be happy. You don't want for him to have enough power to challenge you."

"I've been reluctant about it as well. Konan, a Jinchuuriki's potential is magnificent. The power they could harness is unbelievable. If we had someone on our side with that much power it could turn the tables on a bad moment."

"So we won't kill him?"

Pain raised an eyebrow, "Nothing's changed about that, when the time comes we shall extract him."

Konan had a look of disappointment, over the years he had grown really attached to the blonde.

Naruto rushed to them with his hands on his knees, breathing heavy, "What's next!"

_3 years later_

Naruto lay in bed in intense concentration studying the scroll before him. He scratched his chin, "Damnit!" He just didn't understand this jutsu he was trying to learn. _"If I bothered Pain with help for this jutsu this late at night he would probably be incredible pissed. Nah, I'll do it anyway."_

With his long thought out decision made, Naruto begun to wander the large tower looking for Pain. Admittedly, he had never seen Pain's quarters, but damn if he didn't want to perfect this jutsu.

Pain was nowhere to be found, he must be at the very top Naruto concluded, but Naruto was forbidden from there. Naruto gulped and started his trek to the top. After minutes of searching he could find no door leading up there. Well maybe if he raised his chakra level Pain would come to him.

Naruto stood in place and and started to mold his chakra. Suddenly, the wall in front of him opened, a pathway appeared. Naruto gulped so hard he almost choked and walked through it.

The room had an awful stench, like something was rotting. He saw weird mechanisms all over the room. There were black rods littered over the floor and desks.

"Naruto! What are you doing here!"

Naruto turned around and gasped, he saw a malnourished man that was all skins and bones basically riding a mechanic chair of sorts. He had long, greasy red hair and pale skin. "W-who are you?" Naruto stammered.

"I told you to never come up here!" the man barked at him.

"Do you know Pain?" Naruto asked cautiously.

The man came to a decision he might later regret, "I am Pain."

"That's impossible! Pain's all intimidating and you're all scrawny!"

"Hn, even in a situation such as this you speak your mind Naruto, you're identical to him."

The man continued. "Rather, Pain is my puppet. This is the real me, my name is Nagato. I'm only letting you be privy of this information instead of killing you on the spot because I trust you Naruto. You remind me of someone very dear to me."

"How this happen!" Naruto asked, shocked.

"I don't want to talk about that." Nagato answered simply.

"Come before me, and kneel, Naruto." Nagato ordered in an absolute tone. Naruto walked and knelt, in reality he was incredibly frightened for what would happen next. Nagato lay a palm on top of Naruto's head. All of a sudden he started chuckling. It wasn't very audible, but it was there.

"All of this because of some jutsu. Naruto, go back to bed. I'll help you tomorrow."

Naruto nodded, now feeling secure he reverted to talking to the man with his feisty persona, "Hell yeah, tomorrow I'm gonna complete it for sure!"

Before Naruto could leave, Nagato said one last thing, "There will be a punishment for this, Naruto."

Naruto had heard, but he was finally gone.

Nagato gazed at his working table. _"At least I finally finished work on Minato and Kushina's bodies and didn't leave them out."_

_Konohagakure_

Today was a relatively peaceful day for Danzo, there were no matters at ROOT that he needed to take care of, so he figured he might as well relax today. He sat in a bench to watch all the random villagers walk by He had to admit while he loathed the villagers for supporting Hiruzen, he still loved them and the village at the same time.

A crow perched on the bench right beside Danzo, it wasn't usual for there to be crow s in this part of the village. 

"What do you want, Itachi?"

"I've seen the way you keep Sasuke monitored. I'm just here to remind you to lay your hands off him." Itachi's voice came out of the crow.

Danzo grinned, "Quite the overprotective big brother, to even dare to love your brother more than your village."

"You've been warned, Danzo."

"Don't you want Sasuke to grow stronger, so he can challenge you? I could offer him those opportunities."

"...Do not harm him." The crow flew away into the vast sky.

"I'll take that as a yes." Danzo grinned.

_Later, the same day_

Sasuke sat on the pier, he hated looking at his reflection because it reminded him of Itachi. For that reason as well he needed to see it. He heard a man with a cane walking behind him.

Danzo said the first thing that would catch Sasuke's attention, "Do you hate Itachi?"

_1 year later_

The man towered above Naruto, he had incredibly tan and rough skin. His mask lead to little of his facial features except for his striking green eyes.

"Naruto, meet Kakuzu. He shall be your companion for your first mission."

"Hell yeah!" Naruto couldn't believe the time for his first mission had finally come.

"Iwagakure is offering Akatsuki a generous sum for the assassination of Kumogakure's Yugito Nii. Of course, we won't assassinate her. Capture her and we'll provide a fake body later."

"Heh, is that it. Finally a chance to test my skill. Let's go!"

"A word of advice, Naruto," Pain's hologram spoke. "Do not make Kakuzu mad. The reason he is partner less as of now is he murdered his previous partner."

Naruto smirked, "Don't worry."

Kakuzu glared, _"What a cocky kid. If he wasn't a jinchuuriki I would kill him."_

Naruto and Kakuzu shunshined away.

"Konan, go watch after Naruto."

"Of course." Konan separated into hundreds of papers and began to follow.

_Kumogakure_

"Be quiet, there's a border unit scanning the area." Kakuzu whispered while he lowered his chakra and hid behind a tree trunk.

The patrol squad stopped just under the tree they were hiding at.

"Hey did you hear, Killer Bee and Darui are in town for business matters?" One of the Kumogakure shinobi said.

"Holy shit! Really?"

Naruto and Kakuzu were listening to the conversation. Kakuzu knew he couldn't touch Killer Bee as he was a jinchuuriki as well, but Darui. That man's bounty hefted a large sum. "Naruto, it looks like we're going to have to make a quick pit stop."

AN: Chapter was mostly here to emphasize on Naruto's childhood, but now we can finally move more into the plot.


End file.
